American Marathon Tiers

I think Chgo moved from late October to Columbus Day weekend to increase tourism money for the City of Chgo.

A lot of runners that come from out of town, many extend out the weekend ?

Don't forgot about Miami and Cleveland.

East Coast Bias wrote:

Don't forgot about Miami and Cleveland.

I had to look up the Miami results for this year just to see how ridiculous a claim this is. The winner, by seven minutes, came through in 2:41, and there were only 17 people under 3:00 and 5 under 2:50.

central_park_laps wrote:

jorvack wrote:

I haven't much to add except to say I would think Twin Cities ranks consistently above Grandma's having run both.

Its been a few years, maybe TCM has gotten softer?

I would put Chicago NY Boston in the same category - depends on who shows up each year.

Chicago is certainly the best for the journeyman runner to run a PR due to the course and weather stability.

FWIW last year Grandma's had 221 sub 3 out of 6438 and Twin Cities had 167 sub 3 out of 7518.

Twin Cities is definitely a tougher course though, and the guy who won Grandma's last year got second at Twin Cities.

If you are just looking at times TCM is going to lose because it has that long hill from 21 to 24. It is not a particularly fast course.

central_park_laps wrote:

How would you group American marathons in terms of prestige/talent/general opinion, etc.?

Tier 1 - Boston, NYC

1.5 - Chicago

2 - LA, CIM, Grandma's

3 - Philly, Houston, Honolulu, MCM, Twin Cities

4 - San Francisco, San Diego, Eugene, Dallas, Austin

As far as talent, there's a direct correlation with amount of prize/appearance money offered. This list is a good example.

1. NY

2. Chicago

3. Boston

Proof point:

- largest share/number of foreigners

Personally, I found Chicago had a cold atmosphere, and Philly was quite hilly

I would not put LA anywhere near the top.

I have run 6x.

On 4 different courses.

How can that be considered an elite marathon?

tcm wrote:

central_park_laps wrote:

FWIW last year Grandma's had 221 sub 3 out of 6438 and Twin Cities had 167 sub 3 out of 7518.

Twin Cities is definitely a tougher course though, and the guy who won Grandma's last year got second at Twin Cities.

If you are just looking at times TCM is going to lose because it has that long hill from 21 to 24. It is not a particularly fast course.

Twin Cities hosted the US Masters Championships for many years, which generated lots of sub-3:00 times. And in 2013-14 it was also the Open Marathon Champs, so those years were especially deep. Taking those championships out of the equation, I'd put Grandma's ahead of Twin Cities. That might be why it's been softer lately. There haven't been any US championships there (open or masters) in a several years.

central_park_laps wrote:

How would you group American marathons in terms of prestige/talent/general opinion, etc.?

Tier 1 - Boston, NYC

1.5 - Chicago

2 - LA, CIM, Grandma's

3 - Philly, Houston, Honolulu, MCM, Twin Cities

4 - San Francisco, San Diego, Eugene, Dallas, Austin

Past that who really cares

From an elite field perspective Houston and Honolulu should be tier 2. Then what you have as Tier 2 should be 3 with Twin Cities as well. After that they might as well all be tier 4 and you could propably include a few other there as well.

From perception Honolulu doesn't get the respect it deserves because times are slow since the weather and course. From perception only you have tier 1 and 1.5 spot on.

After that it might as well all be the same.

1. Boston/NYC/Chicago

2. Houston, MCM, Honolulu

3. TCM, LA, Philly, Grandma, CIM, Indy, St. George (I know many will poo-poo that one, but name recognition gets it there).

edited wrote:

How would you group American marathons in terms of prestige/talent/general opinion, etc.?

Tier 1 - Boston, NYC, Chicago

2 - CIM

Past that who really cares

Fixed it for you.

1. Chicago

2. Boston

3. NYC

If we're talking about on the elite side. Chicago has gotten better elite talent most years. NYC has been an average marathon for elites. Boston too. Puskedra was consistently getting top 5 as a 2:12 guy.

As far as for regular folk (people looking to run 2:20-3hr), Boston is #1.

2:23 was the winning time. Learn how to read the results.